Single woman shares gripe over ‘picking people up’ at the gym

A young woman in New Zealand has aired her grievances over “picking up” fellow singles at the gym, after she struggled to approach an attractive man during a workout.

Hannah Rose shared in a TikTok video that she “refuses to use dating apps”, and is instead hoping to meet a partner the old-fashioned way.

Given the culture of modern love, however, with its penchant for eggplant emojis and unsolicited d*ck pics, Hannah said she doesn’t know how to go about it.

“How are you supposed to pick people up? I don’t understand it,” she said in the clip.

“I know I’m not supposed to be looking at guys in the gym. I know I’m not supposed to be picking up people in the gym. But it’s the only place I go where there’s men at — so give me a break.”

Her latter comments seemingly addressed the trend of women filming and then calling out men for their “creepy” behavior while exercising.

Hannah was prompted to make her video after working out near a “really attractive” man for almost an hour, saying she tried to make eye contact with him.

“The whole time I was working out I was like, ‘This guy’s really attractive, I want to talk to him’. How the f–k do you do that, though?” she said.

“I felt like I kept looking over but he never looked at me. Never caught on once looking at me, so I couldn’t accidentally catch eyes with him.”

The stranger was “very focused” on his workout and she was hesitant to “annoy” or interrupt him, Hannah added.

“How am I supposed to talk to this guy? And I just didn’t,” she said.

“He picked up his things and left, then I left, and what the f–k, honestly, how do you do this? He’s probably got a wife. What am I supposed to say? ‘I like your gym shorts’?”

In the comments, dozens of the video’s 107,2000 viewers shared their sympathies.

Others were quick to offer tips on how Hannah could spark up a conversation.

“Old person here. Pre-Tinder, a swipe was direct eye contact, not once but twice. If you got that you had permission to approach. #simplertimes,” one wrote.

One man pointed out that while the man Hannah had her eyes on might’ve been interested, he also might’ve been reluctant to approach her and appear “creepy”.

“I get it, which is why I’m not expecting men to do anything — I’m trying to get better at approaching them myself,” Hannah responded.

“I’m new to dating, it’s not always safe to initiate conversations with men and I’m not using apps so let me work up to it! All of my relationships have been initiated by me, a woman. We have to deal with it too, this is not exclusive to men.

“Having to figure out whether someone’s taken or what we’re going to say to them, women have to do that, too. It’s daunting to everybody. This is everyday life as a single woman as well.”